Articles Posted in Business Law

Short answer. Most of what our E-2 clients do is not a securities transaction at all. Buy the assets of a business, or form and actively control your own company, and no security changes hands. Buy the stock of an existing corporation and you have bought a security even at one hundred percent, but a…

Short answer. There is no franchise-specific E-2 rule. The word “franchise” does not appear anywhere in 9 FAM 402.9 or 22 C.F.R. § 41.51, so a franchised business is analyzed under exactly the same tests as any other. What the Franchise Disclosure Document gives you is evidence, and different Items carry different parts of the…

Short answer. Buying an operating business is often the strongest E-2 fact pattern available. The enterprise is already real, the financials already exist, and the purchase price supplies a clean number for the proportionality test. But four deal terms decide whether the petition works: how the acquisition is financed, whether you buy assets or stock,…

Short answer. An E-2 owner has three realistic employment-based routes, and two of them skip labor certification entirely. EB-1C for a multinational manager or executive requires no PERM. EB-2 with a national interest waiver is a self-petition with no job offer and no ability-to-pay test. EB-3 or standard EB-2 through PERM requires your own company…

Short answer. Yes. An O-1 beneficiary cannot self-petition, but a separate legal entity that the beneficiary owns can file the petition on his behalf. Both the State Department and USCIS say so. What makes it work is governance: someone other than you has to hold real authority over your employment. No authority sets an ownership…

This post compares Texas and Illinois law; figures and deadlines are stated generally, so confirm the current rule in the relevant state before acting. I advise both employers and employees in Texas and Illinois, and nothing illustrates the difference between the two states like the non-compete agreement. The identical paragraph, signed by identical employees, can…

This post discusses Texas law. There is no universally correct entity, only the right entity for your liability exposure, tax situation, number of owners, and plans for growth or investment. Texas LLCs, including series LLCs, are popular for good reason: they separate operational risk from ownership and offer real flexibility. But they are not always…

This post discusses Texas and federal law. It is one of the most common misunderstandings in small business: “I registered my LLC with the state, so the name is mine.” Registering an entity name and owning a trademark are two different things. The “LLC” designation identifies your legal entity; it does not by itself give…